LONDON – Sir John Chilcot, a former British bureaucrat, on Wednesday said that the official inquiry report into the Iraq war had found that all peaceful means were not pursued before the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

In his report, he said former British Prime Minister Tony Blair led his country into a badly planned, woefully executed and legally questionable war in Iraq in 2003.

The Chilcot report found that the decision to join the US-led invasion was taken on the basis of false intelligence.

Tony Blair has expressed “sorrow, regret and apology” after the release of the report. However, he said he did not mislead parliament and did not regret toppling Saddam Hussein.

Addressing a news conference in London, he said “I express more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know or can believe.”

The former premier said if Saddam had been allowed to remain in power in 2003, he would have once again threatened world peace.

He rejected claims that the war had increased the threat of terrorism in the Middle East and the rest of the world.